There’s no doubt that Paul Bear Bryant and Nick Saban are two of the greatest coaches to ever coach the game. But, thanks to ESPN’S Top 150 greatest coaches in college football 150 year history, it’s officially true.
In fact, Paul Bear Bryant and Nick Saban are the top two coaches to ever coach college football according to ESPN.
Of course "Bear" Bryant is atop our list of the greatest coaches in college football's 150-year history.
➡️ 6-150: https://t.co/UG3pFBlAjE pic.twitter.com/dpxfcHSn6u
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) December 10, 2019
Paul Bear Bryant, who was voted the No. 1 coach of all time, coached at Maryland, Kentucky, and Texas A&M before ending his coaching career at Alabama from 1958-1982. In his coaching career at Alabama, he went 232-46-9.
According to the ESPN article,
“Bryant won two national championships at Alabama in the 1960s playing one-platoon football. He won three more in the 1970s playing several platoons, waves of players on each side of the ball. He won throwing the ball. He won running the ball. As the Texas philosopher/football coach Bum Phillips, a one-time Bryant assistant at Texas A&M, said, “He could take his’n and beat your’n, and he could take your’n and beat his’n.” He made players out of boys and head coaches out of assistants. As one of his favorite players, Crimson Tide lineman Jerry Duncan, said recently, “God, what a man.”
Nick Saban was right behind Bear Bryant in the No. 2 spot. And it’s no shock. Since Nick Saban’s arrival, Saban has been constantly compared to Bear Bryant, and the stats line up.
Saban has coached at Toledo, Michigan State, and LSU, before arriving in Tuscaloosa in 2007 to lead the Crimson Tide. Since his arrival, he’s gone 151-23 at Alabama.
ESPN had this to say about Nick Saban and why he was in the No. 2 spot:
“Saban didn’t start out as the greatest coach in the past 50 years. He won at Toledo and Michigan State but not enough to win a conference title. He came to LSU with a reputation of not staying anywhere too long. In five seasons, he won the Tigers’ first national title in 45 years. And then he left for the NFL. That lasted only two years, and when he returned to the college game, at LSU’s SEC West rival Alabama, the clock began ticking until he would leave again. After 13 seasons, five national championships and the most successful run in the modern game, it’s still ticking.”
It says a lot about Alabama’s football history to have the top two coaches of all time. One who left his legacy in Tuscaloosa in the form of houndstooth, and one who’s still creating his.
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